


Untitled

by SharpestRose



Category: Savage Garden, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-01
Updated: 2011-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-20 22:07:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/217569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SharpestRose/pseuds/SharpestRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Savage Garden / Star Wars crossover.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Untitled

Anakin's eyes narrowed in frustration as the sound of a strangled womp-rat emitted once again from the violin. With a sigh he dropped the instrument down onto the couch and walked over to the common room window. Even the huge skyscrapers of Coruscant looked like toys from the spires of the Jedi temple. It was so different to the desert. After six months away from home, Anakin missed Tatooine, his mother, and even Watto terribly.

Feeling even worse, Anakin turned back to the violin and tried again. If he was supposed to be the chosen one why couldn't he choose to make a tune?

"Want some help with that?" a voice asked from the doorway. Anakin whirled on his heel abruptly, startled. A tall, lanky man with caramel colored hair, dressed in loose dark clothing stood there, an easy smile on his lips that didn't reach his haunted-looking eyes.

"Do you know how to play?" Anakin asked. The man nodded.

"Yes, I can play it." the man walked over and picked up the discarded violin.

"Did your master make you learn music theory too?" Anakin asked sympathetically. The man laughed.

"No, I'm not a Jedi. I'm a musician, that's how I know how to play."

"If you're not a Jedi how come you're in the temple?" Anakin sat next to him on the couch. Anything was more interesting then the violin.

"My planet is at war with its moon and a couple of Jedi came over for negotiations. When that didn't work, they brought as many refugees back as they could."

"You're from D'nesvaa-Gerga?" Anakin's eyes widened. The Padawan's had been gossiping about the refugees all week. The war was the worst seen from decades. "I thought you guys were all living in a hostel?"

"The rest are." The sad look came into the man's eyes again. "My partner was injured before we escaped the spaceport. Your healers are doing their best to save him, but they won't know for a few more days." The man looked down at his hands, long brown fingers twisting the thick silver band on one digit.

"What's your name?" Anakin asked, feeling sorry for his new friend.

"Daniel. What's yours?" Daniel seemed to shake himself out of his sadness, just a little.

"Anakin, people call me Ani. If you want, I can take a look at your partner. I can usually tell if people are gonna be OK or not." Anakin offered.

Daniel looked at him silently for a second, then nodded slowly. "Yes. It would be good if you could."

 

* * *

Daniel's face lit up when they got to the infirmary. A man with soft spiky black hair and childlike blue eyes was propped up in one of the beds, his arm hooked up to a monitor and bandages across his chest.

"Darren! You're awake." Daniel said, the happiness evident in his voice. Leaning down, he planted a light butterfly kiss on the other man's forehead. The recipient smile, the exhaustion clear on his fine-boned face. "Darren, this is Ani. He's a Jedi Padawan."

Darren smiled at the boy. Anakin smiled back.

"You're going to be all right, I can tell. The blaster missed your lung, once they treat your burns you'll be fine."

That made both Darren and Daniel give Anakin huge smiles of relief.

"If you're a musician, what does he do?" Anakin asked Daniel, seeing the discomfort it would give Darren to speak.

"Darren's a singer. Will his voice recover?"

"Oh, yeah." Anakin nodded, wandering over to the equipment and examining the readouts. "He'll be totally fine in a few weeks."

Daniel was sitting on the edge of the bed, holding Darren's hand tightly. He smiled at Anakin's continued snooping.

"Are all Jedi as nosy as you?" he teased. Anakin grinned.

"Call it a natural inquisitiveness, it sounds better then nosy. Or observant, you don't get in trouble for being observant."

"You do when it's really just a nice way of saying nosy." Obi-Wan said into Anakin's ear, making the boy jump. Daniel grinned at the stealthy visitor.

"Anakin just informed us that Darren will make a full recovery."

"That's wonderful, I'm so glad." Obi-Wan said, smiling back.

"You know these guys? How come you didn't tell me?" Anakin objected. Obi-Wan ruffled his Padawan's hair.

"Because I knew you would come snooping when you're supposed to be at violin practise." he said, his voice stern but a mischevious grin at the corner of his mouth.

"How come you know these guys anyway?" Anakin pressed. Obi-Wan rolled his eyes.

"Say that sentence again with better grammar and I'll answer." Obi-Wan shot Daniel and Darren a look that seemed to mean 'children, adorable but exasperating'.

"How is it that you know these guys anyway?"

Obi-Wan sighed. "I'll make you take extra language classes next semester, I swear."

"Hey, I don't care as long as I don't have to do music theory. How do you know them? Daniel, how do you know my Master?"

"My sister is married to his brother." Darren said in a raspy whisper. Daniel squeezed his hand harder.

"Don't talk, silly. Let your throat rest for a change."

"Speaking of sillies, I'm taking my student back to his music practise now, but I'll be back to see you two later today." Obi-Wan said, guiding Anakin out of the room.

"Did you see his midichlorian breakdown?!" Anakin exclaimed when the infirmary doors had slid shut behind them. "It was on the screen I was reading... whoa!"

"Keep your voice down Ani." Obi-Wan said, walking quickly along the hallway, his mouth a thin line.

"Why? That's so wizard!" Anakin said, his eyes sparkling. Then his eyebrows knotted as he noticed Obi-Wan's body language. "Master, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Come back to our quarters for a minute, I need to talk to you about something."

"Uh... ok." Anakin said, his look readable as something akin to 'Masters, interesting but ineffable'.

 

* * *

The new messages light on their communicator was blinking, the signature one from Naboo. Anakin was first through the door and gave a yippee of joy when he saw it. Amidala's pretty young face sprang into view when he hit replay.

"Jedi Kenobi, I'm just replying to your message you left yesterday. Naboo would be delighted to accept two more entertainers to our court, especially ones recommended by you. I hope to speak to you soon to arrange things. Tell Anakin I send him a big hug too." She smiled as the image flickered off.

Anakin turned to look at Obi-Wan, his eyes accusing.

"You were gonna send them away to Naboo." he said, small hands planting themselves on his hips.

"Yes, I was." Obi-Wan nodded curtly, getting a drink out of the cold storage area and sitting at the table.

"You weren't gonna tell them about Darren's midichlorians."

"No, I wasn't."

"Why not?"

"Because sometimes telling people the truth just hurts them." Obi-Wan explained. "And I don't want you saying anything to them either, Ani."

"But he could be a Jedi! Isn't that like, the best thing ever to be?"

Obi-Wan looked at Anakin's young, confused face and shook his head slightly, blinking his eyelashes down for a few seconds with a sigh before he spoke.

"I never said that. There are lots of things in this world better then being a Jedi, Anakin. Luckily, sometimes we can have those things and be a Jedi as well. But sometimes we can't." Obi-Wan's eyes unfocused for a moment, and the look Anakin saw there reminded him of the sad, lonely was Daniel had looked in the common room.

"But shouldn't they know? I mean, just so..." Anakin started to say, then gave up. "Do you want me to go back to violin practise?" he asked with a sigh. Obi-Wan looked at Anakin's expression and shook his head with a small smile.

"No, you can fiddle with whatever gadget it is you're making this week until lunch, then I want you to write me six hundred words on good grammar."

Anakin stuck his lower lip out in a pout before racing off to his electronics.

 

* * *

"I don't think I've ever been happier then I am right now." Daniel said, stretched out on the edge of Darren's bed, the room dimmed down for the night. Darren smiled sleepily, leaning over to kiss the tip of Daniel's nose.

"I mean it, Darren. You're going to be all right, we're going to have the patronage of royalty on a peaceful planet... this is a moment where nothing can possibly go wrong." Daniel said, kissing Darren's nose in return.

"Where's some wood? I should touch it incase I've just jinxed our future."

"Everything's going to be fine." Darren said, his voice a little stronger then it had been that morning. "Have I told you how much I love you today?"

"Yes." Daniel said, resting his arm across Darren's waist. "But say it again anyway."

"I love you more then every star in the sky. I love you more then every drop in the ocean. I love you—"

"What ocean? We're on a city planet." Daniel said with a chuckle. "And I think that's enough waxing lyrical for tonight, Dazzy. You need to rest."

"Don't... wanna." Darren said, the words seperated by a yawn. "I just wanna lie here with you forever and ever and ever."

"Well I'll still be here when you wake up." Daniel assured him. "Now go to sleep."

"Yes Master." Darren said saracastically, his eyes closed and his mouth turned up at the corners.

 

* * *

Days passed, as days are wont to do, and life went on. Darren got stronger and healthier, Daniel taught Anakin how to coax some non-screeching sounds out of the violin, and Obi-Wan filled his days with meditation, as Jedi are wont to do when they've got lots of spare time to kill.

The readout logs for Darren's monitoring equiment kept going missing, and whenever the healers would comment on how scatterbrained they were getting,

Anakin and Obi-Wan would share secret smiles.

Secrets are hard to keep, though, and one day Darren was deemed strong enough to leave the infirmary. The two men came to Obi-Wan and Anakin's quarters for dinner. They arrived early.

Early enough to catch Obi-Wan halfway through the process of wiping a data disc.

"Hey, those are my files. Why're you erasing them?" Darren asked, leaning against the edge of the table. He was still a little weaker then normal, but feeling better.

"Hey, Daniel, wanna see my room? I've got a lil robot toy that flies around and tries to shoot you, you hafta deflect the blows." Anakin said, tugging on Daniel's arm. Darren was staring at Obi-Wan, waiting for an answer.

Daniel didn't respond to Anakin's question, he was also looking at Obi-Wan.

"Here. This is why." Obi-Wan said finally, defeatedly, punching in a series of numbers that brought up a three dimensional graph.

"Here's the normal midichlorian rate for humans." Obi-Wan explained, tracing a straight line that ran along the bottom of the hologram. "Here's Darren's." a line, with sharp rises and falls, a few inches higher then the other.

Darren blinked, surprised. Daniel looked equally shocked for a moment, then shrugged.

"Ok, so it's high. What's the big deal? He's too old to be a Jedi. Hell, you told me Anakin's technically too old to be a Jedi."

Obi-Wan shook his head and added another string of code to the datapad, adding a third line to the image. It was as straight as the first, hanging in the air at the same level as Darren's lightning-bolt one.

"This is Ani's count. It's higher then Darren's overall, but look at here, and here." Obi-Wan's finger tranced the highest peaks of the second line, which were above the third. "This one in particular is the highest reading ever obtained for reflexitive telepathy. If Darren wanted to be a Jedi, he could be a Jedi."

Darren blinked several times, his expression shocked and angry.

"And were you going to tell me this?" he asked his brother in law calmly. Obi-Wan didn't reply. Daniel walked over to the couch, putting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

"What good would it have done for me to tell you?" Obi-Wan asked, standing up.

"Well it would have saved us this scene, for a start!" Darren said, his voice raising into a shout.

"Don't." Daniel's voice was quiet. "You'll hurt your throat."

"I can't believe it! Shit!" Darren exclaimed, his eyes wide as he tried to get his head around the concept. "I have a high midichlorian count?"

Anakin remembered when that thought had first been offered to him. The momentary elation, and then the reality of the situation coming into focus— leaving behind everything you love. He could see that Daniel had reached that step but Darren hadn't yet.

"Wow... why weren't you going to tell me, Obi-Wan?" Darren asked, a wide smile on his face. Obi-Wan looked over for a split second at Daniel, who still sat with his head in his hands.

"I guess you can tell the queen that she won't be getting any new performers." he said bitterly, his voice flat. Darren's eyes narrowed as he caught the words.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Come on Ani, I'll let you race me in the flight sim." Obi-Wan said, walking over to the door. Anakin looked at Darren and Daniel then nodded, running over to follow his master out of the room.

 

* * *

Darren stepped closer to where Daniel sat, waiting for Daniel to meet his eyes. It didn't happen.

"Daniel, what the hell is up with you?"

"I'm upset, ok?" Daniel shot back, looking up, his eyes wet with tears.

"Because I'm so selfish I wanted you to be mine forever and ever, but I love you so much I want to see you happy."

"Please explain what the hell you mean, because I'm too sick and exhausted to play mind games." Darren crossed his arms carefully, so as not to disturb the stitches on his chest.

"You can be a Jedi now. You've always dreamed of it. I can't compete with a dream."

"Oh for the love of God!" Darren threw his arms up in exasperation. "I can't compete with a dream? What load of crap is that? You're real, for starters."

"Your midichlorian count is real too. It's a part of you." Daniel pressed. "I can't let you give up a part of you for me."

Darren took another step closer, he was a few feet away from Daniel now. "What's this then, Daniel?" Darren pulled a thick silver band off one of his fingers. "Oh look, it comes off, I guess it's not a part of me." he threw it, hard, so it hit Daniel on the chest. "What about this scar on my arm where I got burnt by the kettle because I was distracted by the sight of you brushing your hair? I can't take that off."

Darren stepped in closer again. "What about the tanlines I got from going on walks with you? What about the memories my brain's full of? What about emotions, like love and adoration and happiness? You can't compete with a dream? Dammit Daniel, you're the best dream I've ever had in my life. Sometimes I pinch myself because I can't believe you're real." Darren blinked the tears in his eyes away so he could see clearly. "You're not just a part of me, you're every part of me. You're my heart."

Daniel looked up, the wary joy in his eyes so fragile, so daring-to-hope-against-hope, that it made Darren ache with love.

"I wanted to be a Jedi when I was four years old and I saw a lightsaber. I mention this childhood daydream once, I repeat once, at my sister's wedding because a Jedi is in attendance and suddenly you think that it means more to me then you? Nothing could ever be that important Daniel, not in the whole universe." Darren stepped in closer, Daniel stood up, and they met in a hungry, rough kiss. They kissed each other's cheeks, foreheads, eyelids, chins, and most of all, over and over, each other's lips. Daniel carefully put his arms around Darren's back, careful not to touch the healing wounds.

"I would fly to the edge of the rim for you." Darren said, the words indistinct against the flesh of Daniel's neck as Darren attempted to cover every patch of skin in easy reach with kisses. "I would kill a hundred big scary monsters for you."

"I'm sorry I snapped at you." Daniel replied. "I was just angry at myself for being so selfish. I—"

"Shhh....it's all right. I love your temper. I don't need to be a Jedi. Living with you is adventure enough."

 

* * *

When Anakin and Obi-Wan returned to their rooms several hours later to find Darren and Daniel curled up on the couch, covered by a blanket, their clothes on the floor, the Force-signature in the room left no doubt of what the activities had been while they were out.

"Isn't Darren supposed to be resting until he gets better?" Anakin said, the expression in his eyes enough to earn a cuffing over the head from Obi-Wan.

"Shh, we don't want to wake them. I'm sure they're exhausted." Obi-Wan said, his own expression a mirror to Anakin's. Yoda had commented only a few days before that it was a depressing thought indeed that the teachers and students now all behaved more like spice smugglers then contemplative monks.

"What will happen to them now?" Anakin whispered, walking silently over towards his bedroom door.

"You know what Ani, I don't know." Obi-Wan said. "My future sense doesn't tell me anything. But somehow I think they're going to live happily ever after."

And they did.


End file.
